High-impact books: Ten books that have shaped my life and thinking

NOTE: Originally posted here on December 3, 2008.

A few months ago I began to reflect on my own personal spiritual and theological journey and the books that God has used to nurture and mature along the way. I’ve come up with this list.

Explanation:

1. These are not the only books I’ve ever read.
2. These are not necessarily the best or most important books I’ve ever read. Nor are they necessarily all my favorite books today.
3. These are books that I’ve read that, at the time in my theological and spiritual pilgrimage when I read them, had a particularly profound impact upon my life and thinking.
4. I don’t necessarily recommend that those who read this blog go out and buy all of these. High-impact books don’t work that way (at least not for me). Instead these are works that God, who is always teaching, discipling and pastoring me, graciously, sovereignly, and providentially placed in my life at just the right times to make me what I am today.

1. A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

This book, which I read my freshman year of college (1991), had a profound impact on my spiritual life. It brought me to a new understanding of biblical spirituality, namely the necessity and centrality of a personal intimate relationship with my Creator. Although I grew up in a Christian home, for some reason that reality had never come home to me. Tozer’s writing put me on my knees and sparked within me a deep longing to pursue and know God personally. I haven’t read this book now for over 15 years but it continues to bear fruit in my life.

2. Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore

Anderson’s outstanding biography of Adoniram Judson, the great missionary to Burma set my heart on fire for missions. It was recommended to me the summer after my sophomore year by my good friend, Eric Smith, who was then an MDiv student at BJU. Even as an MK, this inspiring story of one of America’s most gifted missionaries opened my eyes to the realities of missionary work. What are those realities? Self-sacrifice and suffering for the cause of Christ uniquely serve to advance the kingdom of God on earth.

3. Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace

Bridges’ works of practical spirituality are outstanding. This particular book, which I read my junior year of college, opened my mind to a truth that had never dawned on me before and that continues to shape and drive my daily relationship with God: the gospel, rather just being the starting point of the Christian life, is a message that I need every day of my life. Bridges’ mantra, “preach the gospel to yourself” struck me like a bolt of lightening and continues to dominate my spiritual life and growth. Since then, other authors (e.g. Bryan Chapell, Mike Barrett, Milton Vincent, and C.J. Mahaney, as well as other books by Bridges) have continued to shape and mature my thinking on the role of the gospel in sanctification, but it was The Discipline of Grace which first introduced me to this blessed truth.

4. John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus

This classic (and controversial) work by MacArthur had both a profound intellectual and spiritual impact on my life. I read it while involved in a ministry in a low-income housing project in Greenville my senior year of college. After a year or two in that ministry, I (and the other students that I ministered with) began to notice that most of the “conversions” that we had been seeing simply did not bear any permanent fruit. Confused and frustrated, we began to reevaluate our evangelism methods. By divine providence, at that time MacArthur’s work came into my possession and resulted in nothing less than a revolution in my thinking about salvation and discipleship. MacArthur helped me to understand (sadly, for the first time) the danger of an easy-believeism gospel that makes no demands of potential disciples. The Gospel According to Jesus introduced me to reformed soteriology (for which I am eternally grateful) and at the same time adjusted my understanding of what it meant for me personally to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This isn’t the most balanced or even-handed book I’ve ever read, but it’s certainly one of the most important.

5. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Romans 6

My last semester of college I took a graduate class called Romans in Greek. Curiously and providentially, the textbook for that class was this volume of 23 sermons by one of the greatest expository preachers of all time, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones’ practical and penetrating expositions of Romans’ sixth chapter have, more than any other single volume, shaped my understanding and practice of the doctrine of sanctification.

6. John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad

I wept my way through this book my first year of grad school (’95/’96) as the Lord (through Piper and Jonathan Edwards) opened my eyes to the supremacy of the glory of God in all things. My man-centered worldview crumbled under the weight of Piper’s compelling and passionate biblical arguments. The famous opening words of this book summarize reason that I’m a missionary today:

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.”

I haven’t been the same since.

7. B.B. Warfield The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

Warfield’s compelling and profound essays on Scripture forever sealed for me the question of the Bible’s inspiration and absolute authority. Not that I’d ever doubted it. But by God’s grace, and by means of Warfield’s towering intellect and rigorous theological argumentation, I came to own a truth that I’d always just assumed. It was that truth that drove me to pursue more biblical studies (Ph.D.) and to dedicate my life to the exposition of God’s word.

8. John Piper, The Pleasures of God

What can I say about the greatest (human) book that I’ve ever read? Read it. Digest it. Read it again. Live it. Love God and worship him.

9. Thomas Schreiner & Ardel Caneday The Race Set Before Us

The content of this book is well summed up in its sub-title: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance. I did not read this book until 6 or 7 years ago. Few books that I’ve ever read (none that I can think of offhand) have caused a greater theological paradigm shift in my thinking than this one. Schreiner’s and Caneday’s explanation of the warning passages in the NT and of the NT’s teaching on perseverance (as opposed to just “eternal security”) continues to affect my reading of the NT and to shape my understanding of the doctrine of salvation.

10. Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

It may be premature to add this book to my list since I’ve only just read it this year. Perhaps its impact has been so great because lately I’ve found myself (more than ever before) crying out to God for wisdom and help in my personal pastoral ministry to other people. Tripp’s practical biblical wisdom has been a breath of fresh air for me and has begun to (re)shape my thinking and practice of pastoral ministry. I think every Christian and especially every pastor, professor, Sunday-school teacher, church leader, nursery worker…ok, I’ll just say that every Christian should read this book. And if you don’t have time to read it, read it anyway. As Tripp puts it, a personal ministry of God’s word to others belongs “to all the people of God, all the time.”